& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Punishing the guilty

Now, with the higher judiciary granting bailland staying trial proceedings, most of these people have managed to come out of jail. The whole judicial process of quick trial and possible punishment seems to be a distant possibility at the moment. Will what started with a bang about a year ago end now with a whimper? Will we go back to pre 1 /11 days of political turmoil and loot and plunder by the same corrupt political and social elites?

Shamsuddin Ahmed
IF an offender, say a murderer, is not punished and the judge trying him sets him free on the plea that the prosecution case was not strong enough in terms of evidence produced, and other legal nuances, to warrant punishing the accused, who is to blame for allowing a criminal like this to go unpunished and commit many more such heinous crimes and terrorise the people in the society?
Is it the prosecution lawyer, or the police officer who investigated and prepared the prosecution case, who is to be blamed? Can we, morally speaking, absolve the defence lawyers, who tried their best in return for money or partisan loyalty, to prove that their client was innocent knowing full well that the offender did commit the crime? What about the honourable judge who finally pronounced him innocent, knowing full well in his heart of hearts that
the accused was guilty?
It is not murder only that haunts us. There are crimes and criminals galore in this country. There are rapists, acid throwers, robbers, smugglers, black marketers, bank loan defaulters, terrorists, dishonest and corrupt businessmen and politicians, etc.
But the worst are the high-profile political and social elites, who have robbed this country of its wealth and have become fabulously rich overnight, building personal fortunes for themselves and their cronies through corruption and wrongdoings on a scale never seen before.
These are the people who have, over the years, destroyed all our democratic institutions one after another through partisan politicisation. They have patronised and promoted corruption to such an extent that corruption now pervades each and every layer of our society and national life.
No wonder we were branded as the most corrupt nation in the world during the rule of the immediate past government. These are the people who need to be asked, not only to account for their wealth and property, which they have acquired through myriad wrongdoings, but also to return this stolen wealth to where it rightfully belongs.
This is the task this caretaker government has embarked upon in right earnest in a bid to sanitise our national politics, which has been badly polluted, to say the least, by our past political rulers.
Arresting many of these high profile political and social elites, and putting them on trial, was no mean achievement of this government.
Who could even imagine that these people, who only loathed and ridiculed the rule of law while in power, would one day move in droves to jail, as we all have witnessed? We all know that without
emergency power rules the government could not have taken these people into custody. Nor could these powerful, influential, and rich people have been brought to face trial and be punished, as indeed some of them have been.
Now, with the higher judiciary granting bail and staying trial proceedings, most of these people have managed to come out of jail. The whole judicial process of quick trial and possible punishment seems to be a distant possibility at the moment. Will what started with a bang about a year ago end now with a whimper? Will we go back to pre 1/11 days of political turmoil and loot and plunder by the same corrupt political and social elites?
What we have achieved through the August 4 local government elections does not augur well for us. It is the same old crooks with the same old political hue who have occupied the centre stage of local government politics. Where are the clean and patriotic people who we all thought would come into the fray and get elected? Will it be any different as we go through the parliamentary election exercise in December, given that those who rose to Himalayan heights in
corruption, wrongdoings and criminal acts are now coming out of jails and sub-jails unscathed?
If we are to live and survive as a nation with honour and dignity, we all must endeavour to establish truth and justice in this country. Truth must prevail over falsehood and justice over injustice. Truth and justice can triumph only under a truly democratic multiparty governing system, with the rule of law reigning supreme.
Those who govern must be respectful of and responsive to the wishes of the governed. They will not live in comfort in fully furnished Nam flats by paying a token rent of Tk.400 or 500 a month, when poor people of this country cannot expect to live even in shanties at that rent. They will not import duty free luxury cars and flaunt their proud possession when poor people in millions across the country cannot afford to travel in a rickshaw or a bus.
They will not demand and enjoy fat salaries and grossly inflated house rent allowances and other perks and privileges when low paid government employees can hardly make ends meet. They will loath to live in a sprawling luxurious house with lights glittering all around at night when others have
to live in darkness because of persistent load-shedding. They will be ashamed of taking a dollar from the state when a man on the street cannot earn a pittance by toiling the whole day.
If these are the sort of people we seek to be governed by as our elected leaders, then there is no way we can allow the tainted political elites and their cronies to go unpunished and foul up the political arena once again. If they do so it will be a travesty of truth andjustice.
A word about the state of emergency under which the country is being governed now. Trite, an emergency is not something very palatable that we must bear with beyond a certain period of time. But it is a necessary evil we must learn to live with. Because the constitution provides for it to meet a challenging situation like the one we are passing through.
When people take the law in their own hands, and the lives and properties of the ordinary peace loving people are in danger, you need extra force to be applied over and above the normal force to contain the forces that threaten peace and order.
If you want that those who plundered and looted our state
wealth and property, masquerading as our rulers, should be punished speedily but justly and be legally barred from contesting elections in future, then there is no way you can do this unless their trial is allowed to be conducted under emergency power rules.
Under the normal judicial system, investigation and trial of these high profile criminals is a long- drawn process. It will drag on for years without any positive outcome. Which is why the political parties are insisting on lifting of emergency immediately.
They are saying that a free, fair
and credible national election in December is not possible under emergency. This is not correct. The government can relax relevant provisions of emergency rules and allow political parties and candidates contesting the election to hold political meetings and rallies and do election campaigning. Was not the August 4 local government election free, fair and credible? Did not AL and all other political parties in Pakistan take part in the 1970 general election even under martial law? Brig Gen. (Retd.) Shamsuddin Ahmed s a freelance contributor to The Daily Star